Art-Science Research in Botany: Reinvestigating scientific representations of trees

Collaborations in art and science work with explorative and uncertain research methods to find new ways of knowing about nonhuman actors such as trees. Methodologies and concepts common to modern science are questioned ontologically, in part through artistic practices. The epistemological process itself, its contextual meaning and philosophical level are investigated. In this paper, I analyse two case studies on trees that gathered and measured data on their sounds and smells and question the scientific representations of plants as inert objects.

Scientific research has highly influenced our perception of nonhuman actors, mainly from an anthropocentric narrative. This knowledge is created with scientific methods and narratives. In the sociology of science, this situatedness of knowledge in human experience and expertise is analysed in how it shapes the presentation of scientific knowledge (Latour 1987, Collins 2001). For trees, which have an essential impact on our environments as a habitat for many species, in their use by human beings and their influence on climate. Yet, trees as a taxonomy cannot be completely defined in botany or in common language. It is an anthropocentric conception that has created too narrow narratives for a “woody plant with secondary growth.”

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Author and article information

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Janina Hoth

Conference

Publication date: September 2021

Publication date (Print): September 2021

Pages: 153-158

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[0001]School of Creative Media

City University of Hong Kong

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/POM2021.20

SO-VID: 3e02a415-3d6e-47fc-bc75-6649eae8b97c

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of Politics of the Machines - Rogue Research 2021

Conference acronym: POM 2021

Conference number: 3

Conference location: Berlin, Germany

Conference date: September 14-17, 2021

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: debate and devise concepts and practices that seek to critically question and unravel novel modes of science

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1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/POM2021.20

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

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Comments

Comment on this article

[1] B. Albert (2019). Trees. Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain.

[2] E. Anderson (2004). Uses of Value Judgments in Science: A General Argument, with Lessons from a Case Study of Feminist Research on Divorce. Hypatia, 19(1), 1-24. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1527-2001.2004.tb01266.x

[3] D. Bailer-Jones (2009). Scientific Models in Philosophy of Science. University of Pittsburgh Press.

[4] A. Barry, G. Born, & G. Weszkalnys (2008). Logics of interdisciplinarity. Economy and society, 37(1), 20-49. http://doi.org/10.1080/03085140701760841

[5] H. Brooks (1965). Scientific Concepts and Cultural Change. Daedalus, 94(1), 66-83. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20026896

[6] E. Coccia (2019). The life of plants: a metaphysics of mixture. Wiley Publishing.

[7] L. Daston (2008). Things that talk: object lessons from art and science (1st paperback ed. ed.). Zone Books, MIT Press.

[8] L. Daston, & E. Lunbeck (2011). Histories of scientific observation. University of Chicago Press.

[9] J. Derrida, C. Porter, & E. P. Morris (1983). The Principle of Reason: The University in the Eyes of Its Pupils. Diacritics, 13(3), 2. http://doi.org/10.2307/464997

[10] M. Di Paola, A. Kallhoff, M. Schörgenhumer, & Francis Taylor. (2018). Plant ethics: : concepts and applications. Routledge, an imprint of Taylor and Francis.

[11] A. S. D. Eller, L. L. Young, A. M. Trowbridge, & R. K. Monson (2016, 2016/02/01). Differential controls by climate and physiology over the emission rates of biogenic volatile organic compounds from mature trees in a semi-arid pine forest. Oecologia, 180(2), 345-358. http://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-015-3474-4

[12] M. Gagliano, S. Mancuso, & D. Robert (2012). Towards understanding plant bioacoustics. Trends Plant Sci, 17, 325. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.tplants.2012.03.002

[13] P. Gibbs (2020). Contemporary Thinking on Transdisciplinary Knowledge: What Those Who Know, Know (1st ed. 2020. ed.). Springer International Publishing: Imprint: Springer.

[14] M. Huber (2014), Bäume wachsen hören. Zentralschweiz am Sonntag, 09.11.2014, 47.

[15] A. Kallhoff (2002). Prinzipien der Pflanzenethik: die Bewertung pflanzlichen Lebens in Biologie und Philosophie. Campus-Verl.

[16] J. Kesselmeier, & M. Staudt (1999, 1999/05/01). Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC): An Overview on Emission, Physiology and Ecology. Journal of Atmospheric Chemistry, 33(1), 23-88. http://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006127516791

[17] B. Latour (1999). Pandora’s hope: essays on the reality of science studies. Cambridge, Mass. [u.a.]: Harvard Univ. Press.

[18] B. Latour, & S. Woolgar (2013). Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts. Princeton University Press.

[19] P. K. Machamer, & M. Silberstein (2002). The Blackwell guide to the philosophy of science. Blackwell Publishers.

[20] M. Maeder, & R. Zweifel (2013). Downy Oak: Rendering Ecophysiological Processes In Plants Audible. 10th Sound and Music Computing Conference, Stockholm, Sweden.

[21] S. Mancuso (2015). Brilliant green : the surprising history and science of plant intelligence. Island Press.

[22] M. Marder (2016). Grafts. University of Minnesota Press.

[23] A. Meyer-Brandis, & L. Voropai (2020, 2020/04/02). Exploring the Aesthetic Potential of AMB’s MOC and AAM. Performance Research, 25(3), 74-76. http://doi.org/10.1080/13528165.2020.1807761

[24] J. A. Milburn (1966). The Conduction of Sap: I. Water Conduction and Cavitation in water stressed Leaves. Planta, 69(1), 34-42.

[25] J. A. Milburn, & R. P. C. Johnson (1966). The Conduction of Sap: II. Detection of Vibrations produced by sap cavitation in Ricinus xylem. Planta, 69(1), 43-52.

[26] R. C. Mishra, R. Ghosh, & H. Bae (2016). Plant acoustics: in the search of a sound mechanism for sound signaling in plants. Journal of Experimental Botany, 67(15), 4483-4494. http://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erw235

[27] H. Nowotny (2001). Re-thinking science: knowledge and the public in an age of uncertainty. Polity Press.

[28] R. J. Petit, & A. Hampe (2006). Some Evolutionary Consequences of Being a Tree. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 37(1), 187-214. http://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.37.091305.110215

[29] S. Shapin (2008). The scientific life : a moral history of a late modern vocation. University of Chicago Press.

[30] X. Song, X. Lv, D. Yu, & Q. Wu (2018, 2018/01/01/). Spatial-temporal change analysis of plant soundscapes and their design methods. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 29, 96-105. http://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2017.11.002

[31] A. L. Tsing (2015). The mushroom at the end of the world: on the possibility of life in capitalist ruins. Princeton University Press.

[32] G. Vivaldo, E. Masi, C. Taiti, G. Caldarelli, & S. Mancuso (2017). The network of plants volatile organic compounds. Sci Rep, 7, 18. http://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-10975-x

[33] P. Wohlleben (2016). The hidden life of trees : what they feel, how they communicate. discoveries from a secret world. Greystone Books Ltd.

[34] R. Zweifel, & F. Zeugin (2008). Ultrasonic acoustic emissions in drought-stressed trees - more than signals from cavitation. New Phytologist, 179(4), 1070-1079. http://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2008.02521.x

[35] R. Zweifel; F. Sterck; S. Braun; N. Buchmann; W. Eugster; A. Gessler; HäM. ni; R.L. Peters; L. Walthert; M. Wilhelm; K. Ziemińska; S. Etzold, 2021: Why trees grow at night. New Phytologist, 231, 6: 2174-2185. doi: 10.1111/nph.17552

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